World class things India

1. Naturals ice cream, Malai Makkhan, Biryani

2. Bhopal Tribal Museum originally

3. Stone work- Halibed, Khajuraho, Ranakpur, Adlaj, Rani ki vav, Darasuram

4. South Indian filter coffee & Masala Chai

5. Rock cave of shillong

6. Lakshmi vilas palace

7. Durga Pujo

5. Sheikh Jayed mosque

7. Vatican

Things done

Year end trips

Coorg

Rajasthan

Dalhousie Amritsar

Dharmshala

Manali

Lucknow Kanpur

Kashmir

Orissa

North east

Kerala

Waynad Coorg

Udupi chikmaglur Halibed

Gokarna Mangalore Jog

Gujarat

Bijapur Pattadkal

Bhopal

2016

Tamra

Stop biting nails

Jaipur

2017

Shujaat Khan

Khalifa of Delhi Gharana

Sohail Hashmi

Srinathji

Rekhta, NE festival

Bhimbetka

Vrindavan

Ramachandra Guha

Cruise for the first time

Food : Steamboat, Sulemani Chai, Urdu Bazaar, ghevar kababs, Majnu ka tila, Kulfi,p Lotan, pho, secret samosa

Harry Potter

2018

Kerala Mural

Jama Masjid

Food : Lobster, UPSC Chaat, K3, Karpagam Mess, Dindigul Biryani, Hokkaido cheesetart

Indian art festival

Madurai, Rameswaram, Brihadeshwar

Smithsonian, National Mall

Broadway

Jetski

Car rental in foreign country

High seas whale watching

Record reading of books

Banaras

2019

Cirque de Soleil

The woods resort

Tanya's play

Zangoora

Shakespeare original Brit actors

Devdutt Pattnaik - lit fest

Cricket stadium first time

WM, Kew, Sherlock Holmes, Tower, Hyde park, Globe

Wicked

Scottish highlands Loch Ness

Parents 50th

Qazi camp, MTR, Lalbagh

Ruhaniyat

Halibed

2020

Hampi

Egg - Khan omlette, Agrasen ki Baoli

Conrad, Macchli

Veena violin tabla zh

Finished 15 k location book

Quantum jump in cooking - marag, butter chicken, haleem, yakhni, yakhni pulao, pizza

1000 pc puzzle

Started reading memoirs, space opera

Solved rubiks cube

Raju and jameel tea stall bhopal, ashapuri

Set record books

Set record in movies

Gokarna 

2021

Choti shadi and baby

Lucknow food - Kachori, ghutwa kabab, rahim nihari, idries biryani, golgappas, bhuna, jauzi

Lucknow history and architecture 

Ayodhya Lepakshi 

Shang Palace/once upon a flame/JW kitchen

Pork vindaloo, rogan josh, lettuce cups mince berry pulao chicken 65

Attended appreciation of Hindustani music

Mahabharata course

Visiting IIM Ahemdabad

Dal pakwan ice cream, home chefs order

Orchha

Samanth S, Aakar P, Samar H, Josy J, Jeet T

Gujarat

2022

Made photo archive

Got finances in order

Aced health check up

Dakhani Dastarkhan, Islamanagar

Maheshwar, onkareshwar

3 thousand puzzles

Eden, Tea ceremony

Bought car

Kodai, Adiyogi

Film appreciation 

Taj falaknuma, Hyd

Soo Ra Sang - Korean, Tres Les

Community durga puja

Lavale campus symbiosis

Gol Gumbaz, Ibrahim roza

2023

Podcasts - Echos, Revisionist History

Aeseo korean restaurant

SL

Taiwan - Xialongbao, bubble tea, photo booth, onsen, sun moon temple, chiyai

Rahul deshpande, Rahul Sharma, shujaat best kaushiki

Taj Mahal palace wing, Bombay House

Gymnasium 

Kombucha, KC Das doi

Staycation Leela palace, Van Gogh

Temple architecture

Anjan Dutt, suresh menon, tarana, zac

Chiang mai rai,  white/silver temple, rooftop

Sold house

2024

Water park GRT

Netram, Lulu mall day banglore 

Chola tour

Azuki bistro

Places visited

Kanpur

Ooty

Mysore

Tirupati

Chennai

Kochi

Coorg

Darjeeling

Pelling

Gangtok

Kalimpong

Kolkata

Jaipur

Bikaner

Jodhpur

Jaisalmer

Ajmer

Pushkar

Dalhousie

Amritsar

Dharmashala

Kangra

Chandigarh

Simla

Gwalior

Lucknow

Srinagar

Manali

Bharatpur

Agra

Fatehpur Sikri

Naukuchiatal

Pangot

Khirsu

Hadidwar

Rishikesh 

Jabalpur 

Indore

Jamnagar

Bhubaneshwar

Cuttack 

Puri

Guwahati 

Kaziranga

Tawang

Shillong 

Munnar 

Thekaddy 

Alleppy 

Tiruvananthpuram 

Kanyakumari

Tanjavur

Madurai

Rameshwaram 

Dhanushkodi

Vrindavan

Fatehpur sikri

Hampi

Halibed

Udupi

Chikmaglur

Mangalore

Udaipur

Kumbhalgarh 

Gokarna 

Hyderabad

Corbett

Jammu

Katra vaishnodevi

Pune

Goa

Ahemdabad

Vadodara

Junagadh

Somnath

Dwarka

Ayodhya

Orchha

Murshidabad

Shanti nikeran

Pipariya 

Pachmadhi

Bangalore 

Delhi

Mumbai

Allahabad 

Waynad

Khajuraho

Jabalpur

Raipur

Bilaspur

Nagpur 

Maheshwar

Omkareshwar

Kodaikanal 

Coimbatore 

Bijapur

Badami

Somnathpura

Chidambaram

Kumbakonam

Lessons from Books/Personalities

1 Notion of West and nation of West
2 Anthropologist studies pre modern and sociologist studies industrial society
3 Inconvenient and unjust laws

4 Who is a statesman ? One who goes against the grain to do the right thing


Lessons from Harry Potter
1. Your parents might not be as noble as you thought they are.
2. Do spare a thought for the under-privileged (Elves)
3. Advice for youngsters : Do something not as the last action (Ron/Hermione)
4. It is not the abilities you have but the choices that you make.
5. Modesty is a good thing. You are not responsible for all that happens to you.
6. Sometimes old wounds from childhood do not heal.
7. Is not your ancestry but what you can do that defines you.
8. Some things are worth dying for.

1. The essence of being a human is to strive.

2. Mathematics book - legal formalism or legal pragmatist. Should evolving national consensus be allowed to evolve or dictated? Anton Scalia

3. The four ultimate concerns in life are death, isolation, freedom and meaninglessness.

4. In arguments start with how and not why

5. The state is nothing except the monopoly of force.

Topics of interest

1. History of food, cultural
2. Psychology 
3. History of Islam - Shia and Suni
4. The Roman Empire
5. The revolt of 1857
6. The Mughal Era 
7. History of Deccan
8. Great crime writers from different countries
9. Young adult fiction 
10. Evolution 
11. Codes and ciphers 
12. Cosmos and stars
13. Deep history of earth 
14. World war II, Nazis and Jewish Holocaust 
15. US south and civil war
16. The British Raj and life of Brits 
17. Mahabharata
18. Indian mythology 
19. Middle English history - Tudors and civil war
20. Indian textiles
21. Hindustan classical music
22. Indie music in india
23. Probability/Algorithms/Forecasting
24. Happiness research/Behavioral Science 
25. Justice and philosophy 
26. JFK Assassination, whitechapel murders, great game 
27. Animation
28. Explorers and adventures
29. Biryani
30. Language and language families 
31. Law and legal topics
32. Narrative non fiction 
33. Temple architecture of India

Great Directors

1. The Coen Brothers : Fargo, No country for old men

2. Christopher Nolan : Memento, Inception, Interstellar

3. Woody Allen : Blue Jasmine, Hannah and her sisters

4. Clint Eastwood - Gran Torino, Million dollar baby

5. Quentin Tarintino : Pulp fiction, Kill Bill, Inglorious Basterds

6. James Cameron : Terminator, Avatar

7. Alejandro González Iñárritu - Ammores Peros, 21 G, Babel, Birdman

8. Alexander Payne - Sideways, About Schmidt, The Descendants, Nebraska 

9. Hayao Miyazaki - Totoro, Ponyo

10. Makoto Shinkai - 5 seconds per cm, the garden of words

11. Mel Gibson - hacksaw ridge, acaplypto

Indian Art

Over the last few years, I have developed a new interest - Indian Art. This has been a gradual process. I believe it started from the time I started going to the Surajkund Mela and started to travel more in India. Gradually, i began to build a collection of paintings primarily via Surajkund.

I have to thank my better half to help me develop an interest in Indian fabrics/textiles. Even back as a child, since my mother had lots of Saris, i had heard the sweet-sounding names - pochampalli, kachipuram, chanderi, banarasi etc. but it is over the last few years that i really started dabbling into this world.

It is incredible that we have such a HUGE array of art, craft and culture in India.

Let me today just document some of the art works that  i have and those that i am salivating on in the next few years :

1. Phad  (Rajasthan)
2. Thangaka (Tibet)
3. Warli paintings (Tribal - Maharastra)
4. Tassar (Orissa)
5. Patta-chitra (Orissa)
6. Kalamkari (Andhra)
7. Madhubani (Bihar)
8. Ganjifa 
9. Pithora (Rajasthan)
10. Gond  (MP)
11. Tanjor / Mysore (Karntaka, TN)
12. Rogan art - (Gujrat)
13. Kerala mural
14. Cherial scroll

What  i am waiting to buy :

1. Santhal (Tribal - Bihar)
2. Kalighat (Bengal)
3. Mughal / Rajasthan minature

My Favourite Actors

1. Hillary Swank - Million Dollar Baby
2. Daniel Day Lewis - My Left Foot, Last of Mohicans, Gangs of New York, In the name of the father
3. Morgan Freeman - Hard Rain, The Shawshank Redemption
4. Dustin Hoffman - Kramer vs. Kramer, Rainman
5. Geoffery Rush - Shine, Quills
6. Wiona Ryder - Little Women, Sense and Sensibility
7. Robert De Niro
8. Al Pachino - Scent of a Woman
9. Jack Nicholson - No count (About Smidt, One Flew over the Cuckoo's nest, The Shining)
10. Kate Winslet - Little Children, Revolutionary Road, The Reader
11. Cate Blanchett - Notes on a Scandal, Elizabeth
12. Denzel Washhington - Malcom X, Training Day
13. Sean Penn - Mystic River, Dead Man Walking
14. Susan Sarandon - Thelma and Louise, Dead Man Walking
15. Anthony Hopkins - The remains of the day, Lion in Winter
16. Natalie Portman - Beautiful Girls, Leon, Black Swan
17. Jeff Bridges : True Grit, Crazy Heart